The significance and importance of the study lays in the unique opportunity to evaluate comprehensively in adolescents the long-term neurodevelopment, learning and adaptive outcomes due to developmental care intervention received in the earliest stage of development. This will be the first study to test the long-term effectiveness of modification of experience in the NICU in a brain-protective, learning-enhancing model for very high-risk, very early-born preterm infants. The importance of the study lies in its potential to contribute significantly to the understanding of preterm brain development in relationship to long-term mental and adaptive functional outcomes in adolescence for the highly jeopardized and growing group of very preterm children. The results are expected to be of key importance in decision and policy development for the evidence-based targeting of sparse special education resources.